[Ll. 11-14.] Persius, Sat. iii. 109-111; Horace, Od. i. 9. 21.
[L. 15.] les grands discours. Big words.
[L. 16.] Et le sage Lycée, et l'auguste Portique: the Lyceum, i.e. the Aristotelian philosophy; the Porticus, i.e. the Stoic school.
[L. 17.] Et reviennent... See note to p. 46, l. 17.
[L. 17.] et soupirs et billets... This departure from current usage in omitting the definite article, which gives more rapidity to an enumeration, cannot be imitated in English. It is a feature of the older syntax which has been most fortunately preserved. The use of the definite article in Old and Middle French was much the same as in modern English. It was often omitted (as also the indefinite article) before homme, chose, femme, before nouns taken in a general sense and abstract nouns. The English student knows that Old English said se mann for man (in general), tha godan menn for good men (in general), seo gesceadwisnes for wisdom (even when personified). Is it not likely that the present usage in English, established in the Middle English period, was much influenced by contemporary French usage?
X. FUMANT DANS LE CRISTAL...
'The idea of this long fragment,' Chénier says, 'has been supplied me by a fine piece of Propertius, book iv, elegy 3;' and he proceeds to state that he has not servilely copied it, but, 'according to his wont,' mixed in it passages from Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, and everything that came to his hand, and frequently, too, 'following only himself.' He then criticizes his own achievement, and we shall, in our notes, avail ourselves of some of his remarks.
The first sketch of this piece was written on April 23, 1782, as appears from a mention in the MS.
[L. 3.] Reine de mes banquets... Chénier had first ended this line thus, 'que ma déesse y vienne.' He observes, 'I know not whether the arrangement of this line will be approved. To me it appears precise, natural, and full of freedom.'
[L. 4.] Que des fleurs de sa tête elle pare la mienne. 'The pleasant image offered by this line, Chénier observes, is drawn from a distich of Propertius in an... elegy which is the third of the first book.' Here it is: 'Et modo solvebam nostra de fronte corollas, Ponebamque tuis, Cynthia, temporibus.'